February 7, 2009

A story of 6 immigrants

I hate anti-immigrant people. Really. And I don’t hate easily.

No, we’re not full. Just think of all the depopulated cities in this country. Those are the places that need people: Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, Camden, South Dakota. The list goes on and on. The very least we could bring these places back up sustainable and healthy population from the past.

The U.S., despite being incredibly friendly to immigrants, has long has a Nativist strain. Idiots, they are. And over the past decade they’ve become a lot more powerful.

I hate U.S. policy that deports and makes criminals of good men and women. I hate splitting up families. I hate kicking productive tax-paying men and women out of our country.

At a talk today I was asked why New York became so safe. There are a lot of reason, but one of these is the 40% of New Yorkers (that’s right: four in ten) are immigrants born in another country. And many of them are illegal. And I’m happy they’re here. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t want to be here. Immigrants are what makes this neighborhood, this city, and this country great.

Here is a story of six immigrants:

1 and 2) My grandparents.

My grandparents were Greeks from what is now Albania. They were born Ottoman Subjects (sounds ancient, doesn’t it?). My grandfather came to America around 1918 on an Italian passport. He shined shoes and started a shoe repair business. They met and married here. They raised two successful sons. He lived with us till he died when I was seven. I am named after my grandfather.

3) My mom.

She came to America from Germany when she was 16, in 1959. At the time she just wanted a visa to study English. But when she went to get her visa, the woman on the other side of the glass said, “Why don’t you apply for an immigration visa rather than a tourist visa? Then you can work. “Because I am not going to stay there,” said my mom. Well, check it anyway, she said. There’s no downside. You don’t have to stay. But you never know.

Well, my mom did stay. Thanks to some bureaucrat and a system that wasn’t out to get her, my mom checked the right box and stayed here. It was that easy. If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here. I like to think we’re all better off.

Those were the old days. Now things are different. Now we’re stupid.

4) A business owner.

I just got back from my favorite bike store. Yes, business is crappy, but the owner was very happy. He's now a U.S. citizen!

Despite being a model resident, paying taxes, starting a business (you know, the kind the provides jobs), being a good grandfather, he feared deportation for 18 years.

He came with his wife and two young daughters overland (and sea) from South America via Guatemala and Mexico. I asked him if the Mexicans were nice to them. This good-natured man simply said: "No. It was rough." I can't even imagine.

They traveled to the U.S. via boat, foot, train (freight), bus, and truck (hitching). Any way they could. Many times in many countries they were caught and deported.

And no, it wasn't always technically, what's the word? Legal.

He applied for U.S. citizenship but was afraid that his “crime” of being here was going to get him deported. He was afraid, and for good reason, that he would be kicked out.

He got his passport on December 28. He celebrated by going home, for the first time in years, to visit his parents. He hadn't seen them in years because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to get back into America, his home.

5) A nurse.

A young woman took care of my father briefly before he died last year. She wants to stay in this country. It may not be possible. She is from Nepal and a registered nurse. She is a good nurse. But she only has a student visa. So she’s got to keep taking classes. What then?

6) My cousin.

This Russian came to America on a student visa. She’s smart. She graduated and went on to Harvard Law School. Then she got a job in a Chicago law firm. At work, she met and then married my cousin. They live in Chicago and pay taxes (a lot of them, I might add). They also have a one-year-old son (who is adorable and really took a liking to me, for some inexplicable reason). She is currently expecting a second son in June.

Well in the process of making her a citizen, it was discovered that a requirement of her original visa was that after school she would had to leave the U.S. for two years. Why? Who knows? She didn’t.

Yeah, just like a common criminal, she went to college, Harvard Law School, and then to work in a law firm. For that she is now at risk of being deported. And this despite doing all the right things, being well educated, having an American husband, and being financially well off.

So if she gets deported, they all leave. For at least a two-year forced exile. In whose interest is this? Really. People, what the hell are we doing?

Who the hell wants these good people out of our country? Who thinks we’d be better off? Sure, I suppose it would be good if everybody followed the rules. But that assumes the rules make sense. They don’t!

Why do we educate people and then deport them? Why do we threaten nurses, business owners, and lawyers with with deportation? What the hell are we doing? Where is the rationality? Where is the humanity? Where is the morality? Where is the common sense?

3 comments:

I agree, 100%! In fact, I agree 120%. Since you promised us 5 examples and gave us 6, that makes the math work out. :-)

But seriously, I hope some big changes are made in immigration policy under President Obama. We are traveling along the southern US border near Mexico, and the sheer amount of money being spent to keep out "dangerous" Mexicans who want only to work hard to support their families is infuriatingly stupid.

For whatever reason, there seems to be a culture of crime into which most immigrants to Miami are integrated. It's a shame, because for decades the traditions of citizenry and patriotism reflected by the Cuban-American population were a great benefit to the community, and it is very much a possibility that the ridiculous immigration rules pertaining to Cuba vis-a-vis other Caribbean nations (escaping poverty in Cuba? Welcome! Escaping poverty in Haiti? GET OUT!) is the major contributor to this attitude.

Regardless of the location, though, if you treat someone like they are a criminal, and surround them with a culture that promotes the identity of "illegal," they are going to embody a "criminal" behavior pattern.

Peter Moskos is an associate professor in the Department of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He is on the faculty of the City University of New York's Doctoral Programs in Sociology and a Senior Fellow of the Yale Urban Ethnography Project.

Moskos graduated from Princeton (AB) and Harvard (PhD) and was a Baltimore City Police Officer. He has authored three books: Cop in the Hood, In Defense of Flogging, and Greek Americans.

Me in 2000

Me in 2016

Critical Acclaim for Cop in the Hood

Cops like the book, Cop in the Hood:

"Should be made mandatory reading for every recruit in the Balto. City Police Academy. ... I am so proud that you were a Baltimore Police Officer and a good one." —Colonel (ret.) Margaret Patton, Baltimore City Police Department

"I just finished reading the last footnote! Great stuff." —NYPD Lt. Detective (ret.) David Durk

"I have been a cop now for 23 years and your book really captured what it's like to be a street cop. . . . Great book, great insights." —Detective-Commander Joseph Petrocelli

"Moskos strips away hard to decipher cop-speak and sociological mumbo jumbo and presents something easily digestible by the average reader.... Moskos is a veteran of a war [on drugs] he disagrees with. But he has walked the walk, respects the brotherhood and, as far as I’m concerned, still bleeds blue." —Pepper Spray Me

"Truly excellent.... Mandatory reading for all fans of The Wire and recommended for everyone else." —Tyler Cowen

"Ethnographic chutzpah.... Perhaps the best sociological account on what it means to police a modern ghetto.... Tells a great story centered around notions of race, power and social control." —Andrew Papachristos, American Journal of Sociology

"[An] objective, incisive and intelligent account of police work. Moskos's graphic descriptions of the drug culture... are the most detailed and analytical to be found anywhere. —Arnold Ages, Jewish Post & Opinion

It could have profound consequences.... In Defense of Flogging forces the reader to confront issues surrounding incarceration that most Americans would prefer not to think about. —Mansfield Frazier, The Daily Beast

“Flogging” is intriguing, even in — or because of — its shocking premise. As a case against prisons, Mr. Moskos' is airtight. —Washington Times

Compelling… Although his outrageous idea may conjure up unsavory reminders of U.S. slavery, by the end of “In Defense of Flogging,” Moskos might just have you convinced. —Salon

One of the very few public-policy books I've encountered that goes past wringing its hands over a societal problem.... Moskos's sharp little volume has a potential audience far beyond the experts. —Rich Fisher, Public Radio Tusla

A very important work... provocative, timely, and well-argued. I agree with you completely that our criminal justice system is out of control.... On one hand, the problems seem intractable. On the other hand, we're doomed if we don't do something about it. —(Former) CIA Agent John Kiriakou

It was, in truth, a book that I could not put down. I read it in two sittings (my butt was hurting after the first!)... You did well. —Gary Alan Fine, John Evans Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University.